More Stories from the March 4, 2006 issue
- Tech
Tiny ticker
Researchers have demonstrated that they can control how frequently a DNA-based nanodevice changes between two forms.
- Tech
A dim view of biologic and chemical agents
Microscopic gel balls that act as lenses may become the active ingredient of quick-acting sensors for bioagents and chemicals.
- Tech
Making the most of chip fabrication
An advance in the way microelectronic circuit patterns are created may help preserve conventional chip-making methods beyond the currently predicted date of their demise.
- Astronomy
Chasing a stellar blast
An exploding star recently discovered in a nearby galaxy may be a milestone in the study of type 1a supernovas.
-
- Earth
China’s deserts expand with population growth
Carried forward by winds and sandstorms, the dunes of northern China are expanding at an unprecedented rate, primarily because of human activities that have contributed to erosion.
- Ecosystems
Corals don’t spread far from their birthplaces
Creating a marine protected area might offer only limited benefits to vulnerable corals, because viable coral larvae don't appear to spread far from their points of origin.
-
Babies show budding number knowledge
By 7 months of age, babies often can tell the difference between two and three entities, at least under certain circumstances.
- Health & Medicine
Do Over: New MS drug may be safe after all
The experimental drug natalizumab, which limits relapses in patients with multiple sclerosis, may get a second chance after being withdrawn from use in 2005.
- Animals
Cannibal Power: Mormon crickets swarm to eat and not be eaten
What keeps the great swarms of Mormon crickets rolling across the landscape may be a combination of nutritional deficits and the risk of getting cannibalized.
- Archaeology
Ancient Andean Maize Makers: Finds push back farming, trade in highland Peru
Fossilized plant remains recovered from a nearly 4,000-year-old house in the Andes Mountains of southern Peru show that highland inhabitants cultivated maize and imported other plant foods from lowland forests at around the time that large societies developed in the region.
- Astronomy
Unique Explosion: Gamma-ray burst leads astronomers to supernova
Astronomers have found a supernova associated with the second-closest-known gamma-ray burst, confirming a model in which bursts arise from material blasted into space by a supernova explosion.
- Health & Medicine
Gender Gap: Male-only gene affects men’s dopamine levels
A gene found only in men affects the brain's production of dopamine, a finding that may help explain why men are more likely than women to develop Parkinson's disease and other dopamine-related illnesses.
- Earth
Smoldered-Earth Policy: Created by ancient Amazonian natives, fertile, dark soils retain abundant carbon
Amazonian dark earth, or terra preta in Portuguese, is attracting scientific attention for its high productivity, mysterious past, and ability to store carbon.
-
Gold-Metal Results: Compounds block immune proteins
Metals such as platinum and gold keep certain proteins from stimulating the body's immune response.
-
Eat Smart
Your daily diet may have an impact on your brain's resiliency in the face of injury or disease.
- Ecosystems
Saving Sturgeon
Sturgeon species around the world are in trouble, which is why humans will increasingly be stepping in to give them a big assist.
- Humans
Letters from the March 4, 2006, issue of Science News
Impure thoughts Epidemiologist Scott Davis warns, “Melatonin supplements are not regulated” the way drugs are. … “There may be all kinds of impurities and contaminants” (“Bright Lights, Big Cancer: Melatonin-depleted blood spurs tumor growth,” SN: 1/7/06, p. 8). Are you really going to tell me that you aren’t going to take melatonin—if you’re convinced that […]
